Festival of Lights
12-12-12
In honor of Chanukah we're going to do a blog posting dedicated to lighting instruments!
Here are some different kinds of lights and what they do...
PAR CAN
Par cans are cheap and cover a lot of area. They are great little lights for companies that are on a budget. You can also make your own out of old metal Foldgers coffee cans. They are easy to repair. They are flood lights which mean they cover a wide area. Don't use a par can for a spot light.
FRESNEL
Fresnels are the most commonly used lighting instument. Named after the French inventor of the lens they use, they are a lamp that can be used for a small spot light with a barn door adaptor or in multitudes can cover a whole area. The light they project is soft and rounded. The fresnel uses a spherical reflector inside the lamp. Fresnels are best used 
for top and side light.
SCOOP
A scoop is a round lamp with a singular bulb in the center. They are best used for strong top light washes. You can also see them used as work lights or to light a backdrop from below. Gel is simply attached with clips.
SPOTLIGHTS
Commonly used in musicals. The spots will typically be permanently fixed somewhere in the house. Either up on a pipe or in the balcony. They use the same technology as a fresnel or ERS on a large scale with a swivel base.
STRIPLIGHTS
Striplights are a multicolored wide light used typically to light backdrops and cycs. Using basic color mixing to create different colors on the backdrop. Modern stips will use a rounded piece of colored glass rather than gel in the light to prevent the problem of gel burning. Typically they are filled with red, green and blue. Using these three gels you can mix about any color.
ELLIPSOIDALS
Another commonly used instrument on stage. Sometimes also called an ERS. This light is very useful because it has an adjustable focus, an insert for gobos, and an adjustable barrel in the light. If you are only going to buy one type of lighting instrument for your theatre make it this one. (But I would like to point out that is a really dumb idea.)
MACies
MACs or intelligent lights are the wave of the future in stage lighting. You can program them to do anything. One light can change colors on a beat, change a multitude of patterns and create special effects all from one location on the grid. They must be programmed ahead of time, though. They are a computer after all. You can even see MACies and other intelligent lighting instruments appearing in clubs. They're just that cool.
Comments
Mango
Your second photo is not loading properly, could be a broken link?
13 December 2012HKELD
Hi Mango. The photo appears to working on our end. It's a very large compressed file so if your internet is slow- it could take a while to load.
13 December 2012